In an informal poll, an FDA advisory panel effectively supported approval of Eli Lilly & Co's experimental lung cancer drug, necitumumab.
In a 1,093-patient clinical trial, necitumumab improved overall survival by an average of 1.6 months but also increased the risk of blood clots and electrolyte imbalances, both dangerous and potentially fatal side-effects.
While the survival benefits of the drug are modest at best, the drug makes headway with a disease -- advanced squamous NSCLC -- that only has a five-year survival rate of less than 5 percent.
Read the Reuters article
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